Space shuttle Endeavour begins new life as a museum exhibit in California

Nasa’s retired Endeavour space shuttle has been flown to California where it will become a Los Angeles museum exhibit.

Endeavour begins its flight to California (Picture: Reuters)

The shuttle rode piggyback atop a 747 Nasa jet as it took off from its Florida home, heading to California where it will remain after helping complete the US section of the $100billion International Space Station last year.

Pilots had to wait two days for the weather to clear before the modified jet could leave the ground, taking off shortly after dawn on Wednesday to start the first leg of a three day journey to the west coast.

‘There’s sadness to see it go, but the space shuttle programme had to end for us to move on to the next thing,’ said astronaut Greg Chamitoff.

Nasa retired its three-ship shuttle fleet last year following the completion of the International Space Station, a habitable artificial satellite in low orbit of Earth used for research.

Endeavour was used to build and outfit the International Space Station (Picture: AP)

Endeavour replaced Challenger which was lost in a launch accident in 1986 and went on to fly 25 missions, becoming integral in both building and improving the ISS.

Bob Cabana, the director of Kennedy Space Centre and a former astronaut who commanded Nasa’s first station assembly flight in 1998, said: ‘It’s hard to believe it was 14 years ago.’

Endeavour is the second of the fleet to be retired to a museum, with Discovery already on display at the Smithsonian Institution’s Steven F Udvar-Hazy Centre in Virginia and Atlantis scheduled to be towed to the Kennedy Space Centre Visitor Complex in November.

When it reaches Los Angeles, Endeavour will complete its journey to the California Science Centre.